At some point in my studies of knighthood and creating a manhood plan for my boys, I realized that I would want to display a family coat of arms. A little research turned up that the commonly held acceptance of a "surname coat of arms" is really a misconception. In fact it was quite freeing to find out:
The bearing of coats of arms is not regulated in most countries, including the United States, thus there has been a proliferation of "family name" companies offering histories and coats of arms for a given surname. While there is no reason we cannot enjoy the decoration of a coat of arms associated with someone centuries ago who shared our surname, we should be aware that this is all that it is -- a decoration.
There is also no reason we cannot create a coat of arms and crest for ourselves, whether based on the coat of arms of an ancestor who shared our name (and may or may not be related to us), or designed from scratch to mean something special to our own lives and family.
A site that has been a great resource for historical info, an introduction to heraldic conventions, and a collection of symbolic meanings as well as offering products around the production of custom coat of arms is:
No comments:
Post a Comment